Tech Watch: The Future Of The Tablet Market

(KCBS) – Some analysts out there believe that the Tablet market will quickly transform into one dominated by commodity products.

CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley said if you look at the tablets today they tend to be on the pricey side with iPads starting from $499 to low $800s which is not like a smartphone where they’re all $199 with activation.

Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities, speaking at the Open Mobile Summit, said he thinks by sometime in 2012 these will be commoditized.

“In other words,” Cooley explains, “the tablets themselves will not be very different. They’ll have roughly the same screen, the same storage, the same speed of processor inside. As a result prices come down and that will open up the floodgate toward broader adoption. It won’t be such an iPad-dominated market.”

What affect could this have on Apple?

“Well, that could give Apple a lot of pressure to bring down their prices and that could either mean a lower price of the current iPad or maybe a lower cost iPad that’s smaller with a little fewer features. They did that variation with the iPod line.”

You can hear his Tech Watch report Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:50 P.M. on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.

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